Sydney has been ranked as the world’s safest with the friendliest city, beating London, Paris, New York and Rome, Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris said today.

“This is an accolade for the Harbour City and reinforces the fact that Sydney is Australia’s global city with an enormous reputation, which the NSW Government has enhanced through its tourism and major events policy,” Mr Souris.

“Sydney is often recognised for its spectacular harbour, wonderful events and festivals and the other unique experiences for visitors, so it is particularly exciting to also be recognised for the people of Sydney and their positive effect on a visitors’ experience.”

Sydney was also voted one of the world’s top five cities overall with Melbourne rated number ten.

These are the findings of the bi-annual Anholt-GfK City Brands Index (CBISM), a survey which measures the image of 50 cities based on attributes including the city’s status and standing, the physical aspects, friendliness, things to do, education and economic opportunities and basic requirements such as affordable accommodation and the standard of public amenities.

“It is encouraging to see Sydney not only climb higher in the overall rankings for image and reputation of the world’s cities, placed second in overall rankings just behind London, but also to be named as the city visitors feel safest in the world, with the warmest and friendliest people. There couldn’t be a more positive response from visitors to Sydney than this.

“Sydney’s climb in these rankings also helped to knock Paris off the top spot, which dropped two positions.”

Number One City in Australia, in the Trip Advisor Travellers Choice Awards

The 2013 IFEA World Festival and Event City award

“These accolades are important, underscoring the significance of Sydney as a visitor destination and helping the growth of our visitor economy which, in the year ended June 2013 contributed $26.7 billion to NSW and employed more than 152,000 people,” Mr Souris added.

Simon Anholt, independent policy advisor on national identity and reputation said: “Looking at the People Index within the overall study, Sydney comes top for ‘warm and friendly people,’ ahead of Toronto. Sydney also wins first place for visitors feeling safe in the city, followed by Geneva and Vienna.

“London wins first place as the city where visitors can ‘find people who appreciate my culture and with whom I could easily fit in,’ ahead of Sydney in second place and New York coming in third”.